On this date last year, the Rangers voided Khalil Greene's $750K contract after he wasn't able to report to Spring Training due to social anxiety disorder. Greene did not play at all last season and remains a free agent.
Here are today's batch of links…
- Commissioner Bud Selig is scheduled to make a major announcement tomorrow, according to SI.com's Jon Heyman (Twitter links). Joe Torre will be hired as Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, meaning he'll oversee on-the-field activity for MLB.
- Angels GM Tony Reagins spoke to Mike DiGiovanna of The Los Angeles Times about the team's use of advanced statistics. "We definitely use them," said the GM. Front office member Justin Hollander said they "use it for base-running, offense, defense, everything out there … If [Reagins] asks me to look at a guy in terms of a long-term contract, trade, free-agent signing, minor leaguer, he will know what I'm thinking and assign a value to it."
- Rob Biertempfel of The Pittburgh Tribune-Review says that the big test for Pirates owner Bob Nutting will be when young players like Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata are in line for long-term contract extensions. Team president Frank Coonelly recently spoke about what the team looks for when handing out such contracts.
- Bernie Miklasz of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch isn't sure why the Cardinals are so averse to signing Kevin Millwood to a one-year deal in the wake of Adam Wainwright's injury. Yesterday we heard that GM John Mozeliak said the team will first look internally for a solution.
- James Schmehl of MLive.com updates you on the 11 players from the Tigers' active roster last season that have since moved on.
Is “most overpaid OF” an advanced statistic? That must be why they traded for Wells!
i’m just assuming that by advanced stats they meant astrology or tarot or something
I’d like your comment but your a Red Sox fan…
Lol! Ok,I guess.
maybe “outbid yourself by almost $40 million” is a stat too
I’ll presume you’re crying about Crawford. Question: how does one overbid by 40 million when the Angels first bid was 6/106 and then they matched the Sox 7/142 offer! It’s you’re GM’s use of “advanced stats” which is why you’re gonna finish in third, not mine!
142-106= 36
If you don’t know what outbid means, it means that the Sox paid an unnecessary $36 million, or $36 million more than any1 else. They could have bid 6 years at 110 and got him
Way to quote the first half of a sentence and pretend the second half of the same sentence doesn’t exist; “and then they matched the Sox 7/142 offer” so no, 6/110 wouldn’t have got it done.
they didn’t match the offer. somebody said they supposedly would have but Crawford was going to the Sox anyways
They DID match the offer but Crawford himself said he was a man of his word and because the Sox accepted his offer first, he was theirs and Anaheim lost out!
“somebody” being Crawford’s agent, and Crawford said that IF the deals were the same he would prefer the Sox, that doesn’t mean he would have taken less from the Sox. So they still would have had to offer 7/142, assuming you believe the reports of what Crawford’s agent said.
lets not throw around overpaid OF jabs when YOUR red sox overpaid an OF for which speed is his best asset over the next, what, like 7 years? yeahh….
Bitter Angels fan I see! Don’t worry, I understand!
granted, 80 mil over 4 years is a lot, but you cant honestly say with a straight face that 142 mil over 7 years is a better deal. theres a reason the angels quit bidding at around 107… because even THAT was overpaying.
When you get 4-5 years of surplus value it’s easy to deal with 2-3 years of negative value; when you 4 years of negative value in 4 years total, that’s not so easy to swallow.
I can say it with a straight face AND a smile cuz while Crawford is a bit overpaid Wells contract is a joke that everyone in baseball is laughing at the Angels for taking it on! The Crawford deal is a steal compared to what Wells makes!
– defense is his best asset
– behind that is his bat, which is top-tier
– in third, his speed and athleticism, which strongly suggest he’ll age better than the average player
– emerging power, though i don’t expect it to emerge much further than it has
– ok yes he throws like my sister
averse*
and they should be averse to signing millwood. he has no upside at all and the cardinals need more than he can provide if they’re going to find a way to contend this year
Wasn’t Jose Tabata the player the Yankees traded for Nady? Bust.
Nady a bust or Tabata? I’m hopeful you don’t mean Tabata – a kid that projects to be worth 2 – 2.5 WAR as a 22 year old in the bigs.
I’m sure they can fix this issue internally, but signing Millwood to a 1-year deal can’t really hurt them, if he stinks up the joint that can drop him
which is also true of several other pitchers who have higher upside than millwood
He wants a major league deal and a few million. IMO Lance Lynn should be given every chance to win the job in spring training. No reason to garauntee a spot on the roster to a guy you hope you have to release and throw the money away. Give Lynn or Mclellan the spot, and if you’re hanging around at the All-Star break you have a little money to spend and a chance to upgrade where needed.
Khalil Greene… wow, there’s a guy I’ve forgotten about. Four solid offensive seasons then *poof*
Lay off the guy, he’s making peace with Jobu.
The Angels appear to review advanced statistics. They just choose to ignore them.
I’ve looked and looked and I just cannot find any advanced metric that says paying Wells $21M/year for 4 years is a better bet than paying Crawford $20M/year for 7 years. Both are bad bets over the duration of the contract, with Wells being a really, really bad bet.
A small point, but counting the $5M kicked in by Toronto and the Rivera salaray dump, Wells is more like $19M/year for 4 years. And yes, I would still prefer paying Crawfor $20M/yr for 7 years, but presumably the Angels made this offer and CC declined. Not a great deal for the Angels, but it is not a bad thing to pick up an all-star caliber OFer, and $75M is a LOT less than $140M.
$75m + mike napoli and juan rivera, who were worth at least as much on the field as wells will be*
iow, tens of millions of dollars to make the wheels spin
Not for the Angels.
Napoli = $6M pinch-hitter and occasional fill-in
Rivera = $5M pinch-hitter
There is no way that Napoli was going to be the starting catcher for Scosia, and Rivera is a defensive disaster in LF (and if you have watched him play, you will KNOW that this is one case where the UZR numbers don’t make sense).
3 WAR from napoli (who “filled in” for 140 games last year). instead, you’ll get replacement level (0) from mathis
1.5 WAR from rivera (aiming low, could contribute as much as 3 if he put his game back together again)
= 4.5 WAR. in a hitters park last year, vernon wells contributed 4 WAR. playing center. he’ll be extremely lucky to contribute 4 again in LA
and if he does, you will – as i said – have paid tens of millions of dollars for no gain at all
Yea, and Napoli played 70 games at 1b because Morales was injured.
WAR doesn’t factor in the number of runs that are given up defensively when Napoli catches (the “Catcher’s ERA”). Since Napoli and Mathis have substantively been catching the same pitchers, you can’t disregard the fact that Napoli gives up roughly 0.7 runs per game more than Mathis (over their careers), and these numbers are generally consistent regardless of the starting pitcher:
Weaver – 3.54 ERA with Mathis – 3.89 ERA with Napoli
Haren – 2.25 with Mathis – 4.20 with Napoli
Santana – 3.82 with Mathis – 5.01 with Napoli
Pineiro – 2.37 with Mathis – 5.74 with Napoli
Kazmir – 4.46 with Mathis – 5.76 with Napoli
Lackey – 3.25 with Mathis – 3.63 with Napoli
Granted, I feel very comfortable with Napoli at DH.
on the contrary, i certainly can disregard cera just as almost everyone else does and should
And apparently advanced statistics say Vernon Wells is worth a bazillion dollars!
it’s not even funny how much bean town druggies are getting paid.
i think anybody who lost 15 or more games the previous season would be lucky to get a minor league deal with ST invite, but that’s just me…
angels not only overpaid they gave up a useful piece in napoli who ended up on a team they are chasing in their own division. im not even a fan of angels but come on just on couple trades and deals alone kazmir,wells,hunter when was the last good move he made, not signing figgins?
Those advanced stats really came in handy for the fireballer that is Scott Kazmir.
./sarcasm
1) No pitcher is a sure 20 game winner.
2) They also have Holliday, Berkman (with something to prove) and Freese.
3) Their bullpen is also above average.
I agree that he is a very good pitcher, but a “20 game win lock” is tactless. There are way too many factors to say something like that. Would he have been capable of a 20 win season in 2011, absolutely.
I agree the Bucs have little pitching. But lets see what McCutchen, Alvarez, Tabata, and Walker do this year before we say that there liiving up to their potential.